China Fabless: Why is GigaDevice chasing the no-growth$3 billion NOR flash market?

China Fabless: Why is GigaDevice chasing the no-growth$3 billion NOR flash market?

China Fabless: Why is GigaDevice chasing the no-growth$3 billion NOR flash market?

BEIJING – While fabless companies here are chasing – en masse – the apps processor segment, GigaDevice Semiconductor, Inc. (Beijing) is moving into a market that most IDMs have virtually forsaken: NOR flash memory.

In a recent interview with EE Times, Yiming Zhu, president at GigaDevice, proclaimed the NOR flash segment “a $3 billion market [per year] with no growth.”

Say what?

Indeed, IC Insights agrees with Zhu. The market research firm noted a 14-percent decline in the NOR Flash market in 2011. Earlier this year, the firm said: “While the market for NAND Flash memory is forecast to top the growth list, NOR Flash is forecast to be at the bottom of the list with the biggest percent decline in sales for 2012.”

So, why go after a shrinking market?

“NOR flash is a market that’s gradually scaling down,” Zhu (left) explained. “But almost all electronics systems -- TVs, set-top boxes, DVDs, ultra-low-cost cell phones and others -- are embedded with NOR flash.”

TAG:NOR Flash Memory China Fabless GigaDevice